Mirage
by resoundingdeluge
Summary: To those conversations among friends where neither party knows the other's intent by the end.


Sun moved slowly, letting his bare feet sink into the sand as he kept his eyes upon the azure sky and the diamond stars within it. He relished the feeling of the grains massaging against his exposed skin as he walked, and the sensation of thousands of tiny flecks closing in around the top of his foot with each step. Somehow, the abrasive, almost prickly touch of the Vacuan dunes felt comforting to the faunus boy. It felt like _home_.

Quite suddenly, the smooth feeling of sand on skin was replaced with that of rough, weathered rock, and Sun brought his eyes back down to see that he had made it to the edge of the plateau. He stopped a good twenty feet away from the uneven, precipitous drop that led to an even greater ocean of sand hundreds of feet below. Far in the distance, Shade Academy's central pyramid peeked over the obscuring edge of the stone cliff before him. Sun knew that it would be at least another day's walk across the shifting, unwelcoming desert before he and his team reached their destination, but the thought didn't bother him at all.

Slowly, he lowered himself to sit, and tucked his left knee in toward his chest as he straightened his right leg. He sat in silence for a long while, and then transitioned to rest his palms behind himself upon the cool rock. After the shift, Sun returned his gaze to the night sky, where the shattered moon hung among the stars. The fragmented rock had taken on an eerie, yellow glow, and seemed to almost pulse in contrast to the deep blue sky. Something about the sight caused a faint tug within his chest, and he closed his eyes as he heard the subtle sound of shifting sand behind him, and then light footfalls of boots upon stone.

"…thought I'd come and check on you. Everything alright?"

Sun opened his eyes and looked to his left, where Neptune had lowered himself into a cross-legged sitting position, with two bottles of dark liquid held neck to neck in his left hand. The alcohol had been a reward gifted to them by a group of nomads beset by a pack of grimm, and the boys had accepted the gift with grace and more than a little confusion. Both bottles had remained stashed away among their supplies for the remainder of the day, and Sun found himself surprised to see them again.

Neptune had his goggles lowered to cover his eyes, perhaps from the whirling sand that tended to kick up in the area. The sight struck Sun as odd, considering they hadn't been down for the rest of their journey, but he dismissed the thought as he eyed the bottles cautiously. After a moment, he dragged his gaze up to Neptune's face, and spoke in a tired voice.

"…I thought we were going to sell those, first chance we got?"

Neptune shrugged and offered Sun the fat, rounded bottom of one of the bottles as he kept a grip on the neck. The label had long been worn away, or scratched off by either the desert sands, or the bottle's former owner.

"Yeah, where? We can't bring alcohol with us to Shade, and we're getting pretty close, now. Unless we get lucky and run into a caravan willing to buy, we'll just have to dump 'em out or leave 'em in the sand anyway. Why not just enjoy the moment, while the breeze is cool and the company's good?" Neptune asked, his expression oddly serious.

Sun hesitated and made a conflicted noise, before he gripped the cold end of the bottle and pulled it toward himself. Neptune let go, and Sun found himself sitting up to mirror Neptune's pose as he looked over the cool, dark glass.

"…you know, we're not supposed to drink," Sun said almost automatically. The stupidity of the statement hit Sun's mind like a harsh slap as soon as he said it, and he grinned softly to himself as he shook his head.

Neptune shot an unimpressed look at Sun, and the faunus knew his friend was rolling his eyes behind his goggles as he popped the top on his own bottle. "Yeah, and we're not _supposed_ to be fighting an ancient evil and protecting world-ending relics, either, but here we are. I've _seen_ you absolutely wasted, my guy. Don't get all saintly on me, now."

Sun caught the bottle opener as Neptune tossed it over. Memories of times long past that involved smuggling alcohol into Team RWBY's dorm flickered through his mind like aging film, and he couldn't help but smile wider as he thought back to the temper tantrum Weiss had thrown at the sight of the six pack cradled beneath his arm. One rant from the Schnee and a lecture about trying new things from Yang later, and the heiress had spent the rest of the night quietly ignoring the circle of friends as the rest of them played drinking games behind a locked door. An hour later, and Weiss had decided to join them, albeit with a cup of water in lieu of a bottle.

"Yeah, well. Things are different, now. We need to be alert, and focused," Sun lamented as he turned his gaze back to the giant rock in the sky. He brought the opened bottle to his lips and took a long pull, only to cringe slightly at the bitter taste.

"Then why is your head in the clouds, man? You've barely said a word to us all day. What's on your mind?" Neptune asked before taking a swig of his own drink.

Sun pondered the question, and drank again as he kept his gaze fixed upon the glowing moon.

"…stuff. You know how it is, a lot's gone on, lately. Big changes, new experiences…"

"…it reminds me of her eyes," Neptune said as the other boy trailed off. Sun blinked several times, and turned to look at Neptune with a mixture of confusion and apprehension upon his face. Neptune sat looking up at the moon, and brought the bottle to his lips once more. "You know. Blake's."

The pulling sensation in Sun's chest returned with twice the intensity, and he immediately peeled his eyes away from the other boy and down to the stone below. He fought against his every instinct to look back up at the sky, and swished his tail along the ground in a fit of nervous energy.

"…yeah. Yeah, it does…"

"I mean, I think you did the right thing, man. She needs time back with her team. You helped her heal, but they're the only ones who can close those wounds completely. When you meet again… I mean, who knows, right? Maybe she'll come to realize just how much you did for her," Neptune offered in a low voice.

"Maybe she already did. I don't know, let's just… leave it alone, for now. Please?" Sun insisted as he finally worked up the nerve to look back at Neptune with a pleading glance. The other boy nodded, and drained the rest of his bottle before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Suddenly, Neptune flopped backward onto the ground, and let out a sigh.

"Sure thing. I thought that might be it, but it seems to me like there's more. Is it the other two ragging on you for dragging them to Vacuo?" Neptune asked.

Sun sipped his beer, and ran a bare hand through his shaggy hair. Errant grains of sand tumbled from his locks and got lost in the darkness somewhere on their way to the ground.

"I mean, I knew they wouldn't see it like I do, and especially not Scarlet. But… nah. I've got thicker skin than that, 'tunes. They can whine all they want about sand and sunlight. They'll come to love it over time, and I'm enjoying it." Sun paused, and rotated his bottle in his hands as he stared down the opening. "…are you?"

Neptune slowly and laboriously dragged his hands behind his head, and shifted slightly to get comfortable upon the ground before answering.

"Yeah, sure. It reminds me a bit of you, in some ways. It's a good fit for your home, and maybe mine."

The tip of Sun's tail spasmed as he let out a small, nervous chuckle, and immediately went about finishing his bottle to cover the noise. He let out a small cough, and then laid back to mimic Neptune's pose again as he returned his eyes to the sky.

"Uh, what do you mean?"

Neptune let out a heavy breath through his nose, and brought a gloved hand around to scratch at the side of his face before returning it to rest behind his head.

"…you know. It's wild. A little rough around the edges, constantly changing and unpredictable. At first, it's a little much, but over time, it's… got its own, unique sort of charm. Just when it seems like it all makes sense, things get shifted around, and it reveals that there's something more, out there. Something deeper, and more interesting. I think… even though it's a little weird, at first, if someone spent enough time out here, and got to know what it's really like, they'd learn to love it."

Sun's cheeks began to burn, and he hoped against hope that his friend was keeping his eyes as rigidly locked upon the stars as he was. An idle quietude passed between them for what felt like hours, but was likely only minutes in reality, if even that. Eventually, Sun cleared his throat, and found that his voice cracked slightly as he practically coughed up words to fill the uncomfortable silence.

"…yeah, Vacuo is… like that. I think you'll find that… if someone's willing to give it a chance, it'll take any sort of person in with open arms. It's just a bit of a… a fight, to get there, and find what you're looking for. You know?"

"I think I do, yeah," Neptune affirmed as he finally sat up. "I think I'm gonna go turn in, for the night. You coming?"

Sun finally dared to look at Neptune once again, and found that the boy still had his goggles firmly in place over his eyes as he stared out over the cliff. The faunus slowly sat up, and licked his lips to chase away the dry feeling of arid desert air.

"…think I'm gonna sit out here for a while, actually. Take in the view."

"You do that," Neptune replied as he picked up his empty bottle with one hand, and dusted off his pants with the other. Finally, he turned to face Sun, and crossed his arms. "You know, if you ever want to just… talk, alone, my tent's always open."

Sun met Neptune's eyes, and found himself staring at his own reflection within the glass of the goggles. He took a deep breath, and dipped his head in a shallow nod.

"Thanks. I just might, in a bit."

Neptune gave a quick, sloppy salute, before turning and making his way back out into the sands. Sun resisted the urge to watch him go, and instead tried to figure out where to focus his eyes. He looked out at the steppe pyramid that was Shade Academy in the distance, but the massive building didn't hold his interest for long. The glowing edge of the moon came into his peripheral vision, and he quickly redirected his gaze out to a field of stars. Though he tried to remember any constellations that he knew, he found that his focus kept slipping to the deep, darkened shade of blue that served as the backdrop of the night sky.

Without so much as another thought, Sun grabbed his bottle and turned, before breaking into a jog to catch up to his friend.


End file.
